Latin Notes: Poncho Sanchez ready for Latin Grammys

Updated 11:17 am, Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Grammy-winning artist Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band will perform at the Jo Long Theatre, Carver Community Cultural Center. Courtesy photo

Grammy-winning artist Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band will perform at the Jo Long Theatre, Carver Community Cultural Center. Courtesy photo

Photo: Mysa

Latin Notes: Poncho Sanchez ready for Latin Grammys

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Legendary Latin jazz musician Poncho Sanchez is assured of at least one Latin Grammy Award next month. It could be two.

And he has one Grammy to his name already.

The Los Angeles-based conguero and bandleader is being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Besides that prestigious award, his latest album “Chano y Dizzy” is nominated in the best Latin jazz album category.

Sanchez, who was born in Laredo and lived there as a child and briefly as a teenager, is excited to catch up with his family and friends from his hometown, many who have told him that they'll be at the show and most certainly dancing in the aisles before the night is over.

“I have cousins and school friends that are coming,” Sanchez said. “We're excited.”

Entertainment Channel

It's a homecoming for two of his musicians, too. Saxophonist/flautist Rob Hardt and pianist Andy Langham hail from S.A.

Sanchez recounted moving back to Laredo from the Los Angeles area in the early 1960s, when he was in junior high school. One sister cried all the way from California, he said.

More Information

“It was, like, ‘Wow! Everyone is behind the times,' especially when you're a teenager,” he said. “Going back to Laredo, they were listening to songs we were listening to three years (earlier). They were barely breaking into the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.”

But he's quick to point out that Laredo is where he first heard norteño music and the Chicano soul sounds of Little Joe y La Familia and Sunny & the Sunliners. “Still today, they're my favorite Tex-Mex bands,” Sanchez said. “I love the older style.”

Mostly, it's good memories that remain despite the fact that the family lived “in the worst barrio” across the railroad tracks near the Rio Grande in a flood-prone area known as El Rincon del Diablo and later as El Tonto.

“It was cool. We used to go fishing in the river and catch catfish and go fishing at (Lake Casa Blanca). I'd hang out with my cousins and go fishing all summer,” he said.

“As a kid, I remember my uncle would take me across the river and we'd go eat, of course, cabrito and we'd go the circus over there, which was cool. In those days it was great, you could walk across the border and it was beautiful, man.”

It was in Laredo where he honed the rudimentary guitar chords first taught to him by a buddy, Benny Rodriguez, in L.A. Guitar was his first instrument. When he moved back to California, he planned to be a guitar player.

“I went back with my old beat-up guitar,” Sanchez said, recounting how one of his best friend's sisters broke the news that the old gang had started a band without him and were practicing down the street.

“I ran over there with my guitar, like, ‘Wow, man. I'm going to join the band.' When I walked in, they all had electric guitars with amplifiers. I had my old beat-up guitar with three strings on it.”

They didn't need a guitarist. They needed a singer.

“I was a good dancer because my sisters taught me how to dance, and I used to know how to do the James Brown moves. They said, ‘There's the microphone, give it a try.' Well, I jumped up there and did the best imitation of James Brown and Wilson Pickett I could think of. From that day, I've been the lead vocalist of every band I ever been in.”